In the prior art, various forms of plastic shock absorbing materials are known, including non-hollow bodies having a spherical or spaghetti shape that are made from foamed plastics. Such packing materials do not provide integrated shock absorbing action and often act hydrodynamically, thus permitting the packed object to be subjected to undesired movement and vibration as the packing material itself deforms. In addition, such materials often provide unsatisfactory shock absorbing characteristics, are difficult to handle and are expensive due to the additional plastic material that is necessary because of the non-hollow nature of the packing material.
Alternatively, those prior art packing materials that attempt to use a hollow, rather than a foamed body, have shapes that do not easily permit the complete and efficient filling of voids around the object to be packed and do not maintain fully adequate shock absorbing capabilities over a wide range of shipping temperatures. As a consequence, more working units are required, and decreased shock absorbing compression and deformation characteristics result.